It’s been 10 days since I made my first post about this situation.
Thank you, internet strangers:
First, I want to thank all the internet strangers who made contributions to the original post with comments, upvotes and awards. You guys had a lot of valuable insights, and it gave me a lot to think about.
You guys gave me the words to express what was going on and what was wrong with it. There is so many comments on the original post they all started to run together in my mind. But an important take away that I got was that I’ve been doing too much for too long and because of this they expect me to keep running an entire front-end department by myself. It’s not fair to me.
The antiwork communities’ response really means a lot to me!
Reading all those comments made me feel great. Especially the ones about what Gladys can go do with herself. Lmao. It really cheered me up. Thank you!
Malicious Compliance and Additional Info:
I saw a lot of comments about malicious compliance and some comments about not giving all the details in the original post.
Basically – when I started this job 5 years ago, I was Tammi’s back up and I was supposed to sit at my other desk. Tammi ran the show but what ended up happening is that the volume of work at the front desk was always intense enough for me to be right next to Tammi to help her, to back her up. With Tammi gone – I run the show. As much as I’d love to maliciously comply and just go sit at my other desk – someone must be there to help the customers.
I was originally meant to go up front to cover Tammi’s breaks and then go back to my desk. However, often I’d get stuck up there helping customers. This led to Gladys’ comment during our argument, “You were never supposed to sit up at the front desk all the time. You were supposed to be trained and sit back at your own desk. You chose to sit at that front desk!”
Gladys comment about that did not make sense to me in the context she used it. It was confusing. But don’t worry, Gladys saying dumb sh!t does get her in trouble.
Actions I took:
Some commentors recommended I take some time off. So, all last week I was ‘sick’. I had an unplanned sickcation. Those five days off were amazing! This is the first time I’ve been off that long in a very long time.
My phone is hooked up to my work email. (I know. I know! I should’ve turned it off.) I was getting lots of emails from Gladys. Specifically emails about the mail coming in.
We have a log where we track the daily mail counts, this is a very import log because it tracks how many checks we receive in the mail – this gets audited. Instead of just entering the numbers into the log herself, Gladys was emailing me the numbers so I could enter them.
By Thursday I literally had over 150 emails piled up. So, it was really aggravating seeing the mail count emails pop-up. This is one thing I think Gladys could help with.
I know I’m off on sickcation, but I couldn’t stop myself from resharing the log with Gladys and sending her an email saying, “Hey Gladys, I shared with you the mail log sheet. It would be very helpful if you entered the data in my absence. I don’t want any of the numbers to get lost.”
Gladys emails back, “I will not be updating the mail log in your absence. You can do it when you return to the office. If the emails are not clear, I am attaching my notes from each day the mail was counted. If you need clarification, please let me know.”
Lmao. I replied mentioning that this log is an important audit point and CC’d her boss on it so her boss could see the whole thread. To my knowledge – her boss never responded.
I get back to work on Monday and the front desk is in a state of chaos. Papers everywhere. Mail and faxes all over the place. It was tragic but secretly this is exactly what I wanted to happen. I kept a mental log of everything that hasn’t been done, waiting for my moment.
My boss’ boss’ boss, head honcho, comes to check on me. I point out all the things that have been neglected when I was gone and how Gladys didn’t lift a finger to do anything.
Originally the head honcho goes into a speech about chain of command and how I should start by talking to my boss, Gladys. I mentioned how when I asked her for help, she told me in writing that she will not help me. And that I sent that to her boss and as far as I know – nothing’s happened. I did follow chain of command.
I tell the head honcho it is not substantial for a business to rest an entire department on one person’s shoulders. I told her to look around – I was gone for just a week, look at all the stuff piled up! It’s not ok. I said that it isn’t acceptable or fair to our customers that their correspondence gets ignored simply because I am not there.
I felt like I finally got through to head honcho while absolutely throwing Gladys under the bus.
Head honcho tells me to put together an email detailing our discussion and what the front desk needs to get done when I’m not there.
I tell you h’what – this was the most passionate detailed email. No point was left un-bulleted.
The next day, Tuesday, very early at 7:50am, Gladys’ boss calls her to her office over our intercom system.
I have no idea what happened behind that closed door – but I do know Gladys was in a bad mood for the rest of day.
I called out this Thursday just because. I come to work today and there’s no papers everywhere – the faxes and mail have been handled. Gladys sheepishly saunters up to me to ask what to do with faxes she didn’t know how to process. Felt good.
What’s next?:
I spent my entire week off applying for jobs like crazy. Polished my resume. Completed several job applications.
One place I have a good feeling about. They replied to tell me I got put on a best qualified list and I’m waiting to hear about an interview. The job = office manager.
If there is a third update, I hope it will be about my new job because I am no longer interested in working for my current employer.